Lakers.com BasketBlog

With the Lakers coming upon their 50th season in Los Angeles, we’ve been digging into the history books, which always nets a fun fact or two.

Here’s one:

After moving from the Buffalo Braves to the Lakers in 1973-74 as a third-year player, Elmore Smith set a still-standing league record of 17 blocks in one game, which he accomplished against Portland on Oct. 28, 1973 (a 111-98 Lakers win). You have to wonder whom he was guarding … Ouch.

The NBA has pages devoted to stats such as these, where we learned that fellow Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shares the NBA record for seasons leading the league in blocks (4), along with Utah’s Mark Eaton.

Of course, the league didn’t start keeping track of blocked shots until 1973-74, and Wilt Chamerlain retired the year before. Who knows how many shots the Stilt might have blocked in a single game? Alas, for Smith, it was his most prolific shot-blocking season, in which 4.9 balls per game were sent a different way.

Not bad at all, but it’s the 17 in one game that we’ll remember most. For a point of reference, Andrew Bynum’s best game in 2008-09 featured six blocks, and Pau Gasol’s only five. Do your thing, Elmore.

Lakers.com reader Stanley checked in recently with this question:

Q: Jay-Z has seemed to have aligned himself with LeBron James (he’s in his new video) and Lil’ Wayne made the song called “Kobe Bryant”… So who wins that battle, and what’s your take on arguably the two best rappers in the industry using the two best basketball players on the planet to sell records?
- Stanley, Valencia, CA

Any time someone can sensibly mix Jay-Z and Lil’ Wayne into a legit question, I’m compelled to answer. In fact, this topic could probably circle sports talk radio for weeks (OK, maybe a day … all right, an hour … fine, one segment). Alas, I’ll first refer to J-Peezy’s Playlist. During our 2009 Lakers Hip Hop Draft (Playlist No. 3), featuring Josh Powell and Shannon Brown with myself on the side, Lil’ Wayne went No. 1 overall (to Powell), while Jay-Z fell to No. 3 (to Brown as I took 2pac second).

“(Lil’ Wayne’s) just poppin,’,” said Powell at the time. “He’s gettin’ it in right now. I’ve been a ‘Lil Wayne fan since he was 12.”

I’d argue that while Jay-Z is the more accomplished artist at this stage (who has more hits?), the younger generation of NBA players seem to prefer Lil’ Wayne. Many, like Powell, literally grew up with him. Per your question, Stanley, the fact that Weezy not only wrote a rap about Kobe, but that it’s well-written and has a solid beat, supersedes an appearance in Jay-Z’s video from LeBron. Furthermore, Lil’ Wayne joined Kanye West to perform at L.A.’s championship party, so I’d have to say that the man from the South gets Round 1.

I’m not really sure, however, that the rappers are using the athletes to sell records; entertainers and athletes seem to envy one another’s careers and seem constantly eager to cross over. At the same time, your point is taken - it probably doesn’t hurt the record sales to go the athlete route. Thanks for the question.